Let's meet again
by lexwrites
Summary: Santana and Rachel just can't stop running into each other, in Paris of all cities.


Rachel is surprised to see Santana then and there; to say pleasantly would most definitely be inappropriate.

It's summer and she was looking forward to spending some time away from Lima with her fathers, probably a little too much. She thought Europe would be a good place to escape all that, but, somehow, Santana seems to be there.

They were both alone on the first meeting. Rachel's dad never really liked heights, and her daddy wants to keep him company; Santana's mom has managed to get acquainted with some French chick that she let her go by herself.

Santana had to look over four times to make sure it was Rachel Berry; maybe she was prone to hallucinating while on top of an attraction that most of the world knows. So far, she has convinced herself that this whole trip is a dream she will have to wake up from at one time. But her mother tries to remind her that it's all reality, so she falsely believed her.

When she is finally in the right state of her mind to approach her classmate, Rachel is already letting her jaw drop at her. They don't speak for an awkward moment, so one of them has to say something. And like it always happens, they decide that in the same moment. Santana smiles nicely at Rachel, who stands shocked still, choosing to leave her face emotionless.

"Fancy meeting you here." The Latina speaks again, this time successfully, without being interrupted by Rachel. A smirk appears on her face, several times, like she's playing around with it; Rachel thinks it's fairly cute.

"It is a bit surprising, yes." The singer agrees with her, nodding slightly. "I like your dress, it's far from something you would've worn at Lima. It suits you well." She continues to compliment the clothing choice. It's certainly something different from the Santana Lopez she thought she knew fairly well, for them not being friends. Well, technically, Santana never said that, but the with the whole Finn debacle, she has just assumed; maybe she should learn not to do that often.

"Thanks. I felt like I needed a change." Santana responds casually, a coy smile still on her face. It's like they've forgotten where they are, until some crazy chick yells words only one of them understands, and they whip their heads around to see what caused it; French people are _really _weird at times. "I do have a note reminding me not to influence my mind while drunk, though."

Rachel _has _to let out a chuckle at that, though Santana's expression never changes. "Are you here with your family?"

"Not really. Only my mom came to relax and explore wit me." The taller brunette states. "Not what I imagined for my first trip to Europe, but it's okay, I guess. You here with your dads?"

Rachel only nods in reply to it, leaving her glance cast downwards and her leg fiddling around the ground.

It's getting late, and Rachel can notice a romantic sunset somewhere in the background; if only she had someone to share it with now.

"Paris is the city of love; it would be convenient if Finn was here with you."

A scowl on Rachel's face doesn't go unnoticed, and a groan is even a bigger sign that something is definitely wrong with that. "Finn and I… let's just say that the spark between us has been gone for a while now. My lust for him was simply a false hope that he is like someone I knew a long time ago. Besides, he's not coming to New York, I can't see our relationship working long distance."

Her look tells Santana what she is talking about, but she chooses to ignore it until further notice; once she is truly ready to talk about it. "He wasn't right for you, anyway."

"So I've been told." Santana's face visibly falls at this, but Rachel is pretty quick with correcting her words. "I appreciated Quinn telling me that, and I listened to every word of it. I just didn't like my fathers pressuring the topic every time I mentioned him."

Words can barely be heard from all of the noise around them, but they don't mind; they're both focused on only themselves in that moment, that they don't even notice it.

"That's…" Santana struggles to find the right word. "Understandable." She manages to remember. She doesn't want to let the silence between them take over, even though it's not all that uncomfortable. "Listen, I have to go, but… maybe I'll see you around another time?"

"Sure." Rachel is quick to answer, and Santana soon leaves, letting her turn around and note the sunset approaching its end confidently.

When she finally gets down from L'arc de triomphe, her fathers impatiently ask her if she had any idea of how long she was up there, but she smiled at them kindly. Saying she bumped into an old friend up there, she dismissed them completely; the looks which they had on their faces after her last sentence before she stumbled off in an unknown direction were somewhat questioning.

She didn't mind them at all, as long as they followed the written plan of where they were going next; even though they _were _gushing all the time over who that might be. None of the guesses were correct, fortunately for her.

* * *

><p>Getting lost in the middle of an enormous seventeenth century castle is not a big deal; however, not knowing the native language of the people there is a bit concerning. All Santana sees is road in front of her, followed by some cyclists getting to some other place easier. She could have rented a bike for the garden, but it's her mother that holds all the money.<p>

She is doomed. When she sees a gate, it's a sign that she is going the wrong way again; she's gotten to two of those already, and no sign of her mother. The sun is still out, and the castle probably works long enough for her to find her way.

Along the way, she swears she will _never _let her mother convince her to not buy French mobile numbers for both of them. Of course there is no reception and no way to call anyone.

So far, every person that she tried to talk to spoke some gibberish that she doesn't understand at all. Sure, she catches some words that are similar in Spanish, but, other than that, nothing; _nada_.

"Santana!" The Latina hears a voice behind her, and turns around, departing as far away as she can from her thoughts. "I cannot believe we ran into each other once again."

"Lucky me." Santana mumbles, but Rachel doesn't hear the words coming from her mouth. "Do you, by any chance, know where some little Trianon, or something like that, is?"

"Oh, le petit Trianon." Rachel utters in perfect French, bringing a hand to her heart while she sighs contently. "That is, by far, one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen the insides of. And the interior design is, simply put, magnificent. "

"I kind of got lost, and my mother should be there." Santana explains as they walk along the road, nearing wherever Rachel was heading towards. "And I'm sure I'd like to see it if it's as wonderful as you make it sound."

"That's right, you are a very artistic person." The singer remembers swiftly, leading the way to a pond she set her mind on.

"Where are your dads?" Santana asks curiously.

"My dads and I split up recently, since they are _too tired _to continue walking. Can you believe that?" Rachel asks, like it's the most normal thing to walk across the whole castle campus in one day and not be exhausted.

Santana has to let out a soft chuckle at that, because it is _so _Rachel to leave her parents behind if she has something planned that they aren't able to do. "That is… totally unacceptable." She says, dramatically, and Rachel smiles at her; as if she thought Santana was being serious.

"I'm glad _somebody _understands me." Rachel sighs loudly, letting the silence take over for the next few minutes they were walking. It was mostly comfortable, without a word, before Rachel stopped abruptly. "Well, that building there is what you're looking for, and I think that I see your mother is there."

"Yeah, that's her." Santana nods, turning around to face her friend. "Thank you, Rachel. See you back in Lima, then." She proceeds to talk, and Rachel's smile never leaves her face.

"It was absolutely not a problem, Santana. I'll be seeing you soon." The tiny brunette utters with an unusually chipper voice.

They both continue walking in different directions now.

Santana is thinking of how lucky it is to bump into Rachel once again; if she hadn't, she may have been lost forever. Well, probably not forever, but at least until someone finds her.

Rachel is thinking of how strange it is that they keep on running into each other; Paris is a big city, still, they tend to go to the same places on the same days.

Neither of them thinks about it after they are safe in their hotel rooms, conveniently not too far away from each other, but that's nothing they know of. Rachel gets the best sleep she's ever had that night, and Santana can safely say that someone has changed the mattress she has complained about to her mother not too long ago.

* * *

><p>Rachel is in the middle of French renaissance artists section when she hears Santana talking softly with her mother. She turns to see the two of them directly behind a bench that her fathers have taken to rest.<p>

"Santana." She says as loud as she thinks she's allowed to. It's a museum; you should be quiet, right?

"Rachel!" Santana greets her rather enthusiastically and much too loud for anyone's liking; French people are very interested in art, or so it seems.

Rachel's fathers both stand up and turn to Santana, watching both girls with curiosity. "Oh, dad, daddy, this is Santana Lopez. We're in Glee club together."

Santana has to take a step back; she hasn't told anything of the past years to her fathers? "I remember you. You sang Valerie, haven't you? Simply marvelous performance." One of the men, the taller one, states.

"Yes, thank you, sir." Santana tries her hardest to be polite before pointing to her mother. "This is my mother."

"Maria." She introduces herself, shaking both men's hands after it. "It's really nice to meet you Rachel, Santana has told me much about you." As she continues, Santana can feel a blush settling on her cheeks.

"How about, you two go together through this section, and we'll stay behind and meet you at the end, huh?" The shorter man asks kindly, smiling at Santana and his daughter.

"What a wonderful idea!" Maria exclaims excitedly, and Santana and Rachel are left to venture the whole section alone.

"I don't really care for all this pictures." Santana honestly says to Rachel when they are far enough away from their parents. "I've been dragged out of the bed this morning thinking I'm going to the Eiffel tower."

"Oh, that's really unfortunate. If you try to interest yourself a little, maybe it could be fun to be here." Rachel suggests and then softly gasps as she stands by one of the pictures. Santana doesn't get what the big deal is.

"You know, I thought that Mona Liza is something worth coming for, but I don't really like it, so…" Santana lets it hang at that, shrugging at her own statement and then moving towards the next picture.

* * *

><p>For the whole department in the museum, Santana regrets telling Rachel her opinion. She is nagged all along their way through countless number of pictures.<p>

It's then that she makes a mental note of never mentioning Mona Liza to Rachel again. "I was kidding, you know." She lies swiftly as they approach their parents once again. "I guess I'll see you back at school?"

"Oh no, Santana, we've arranged a lunch date for us and your mother and you." One of Rachel's dads says. "So you'll be seeing each other soon. It was nice meeting you."

"You too, Mr. Berry." Santana nods, smiling at him.

Secretly, she likes that she'll see Rachel one more time. She swears her mother is driving her completely crazy with all of the sightseeing; she thought this trip would be all fun and stuff. Now, it's just plain boring when Rachel's not around, which is more than unusual every time they bump into each other.

Santana thanks her mom for setting up the lunch date and she makes a comment that implies her liking Rachel at certain level, but she dismisses it because she's far too tired to argue that. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad.

* * *

><p>Rachel and her dads meet Santana and Maria in front of Notre Dame after a couple of days, for their arranged lunch. "I don't really want to go in." Santana is fast to declare when they're close enough.<p>

"Well, I'm sure Rachel would love to keep you company, wouldn't you, honey?" Hiram Berry asks is daughter. "We've already been here before and you can go to a café and wait for us there. Here, have some money."

Santana chuckles and Rachel shakes her head at the same time. "Great. I need money." She directs to her mother, who is quick to comply. They part their ways quickly and her and Rachel are left alone once again, this time to go to a nearby café.

Rachel orders some kind of juice and then an espresso for her, because she speaks fluent French and Santana can only understand a little of the language. "Impressive." She comments aloud, even though she didn't mean to.

"Thank you, Santana. I pride myself in being an excellent French language speaker."

Santana only nods and then her mind takes her to a weird place. She wonders when she started finding Rachel anything other than annoying; it must be because of her mother's comment.

Somehow, everything leads to Santana saying that Rachel has a nice smile, which, really, she could've pulled off better and not get all ashamed of, but Rachel thanks her and tells her how sweet that was of her to say that, to which Santana responds only with her blush spreading.

Bottom line of the whole lunch date is another date, to which they'll be going alone. Rachel is the one that asked in privacy that their parents gave them.

"Would you, maybe, like to go on a date with me?" Rachel asks and Santana is to stunned to respond right away, so she continues. "It doesn't have to be a classic dinner, maybe we could go to the Eiffel tower in the evening, you said you haven't been there."

"Why not? Sure," Santana breaks off her rambling and shocks both Rachel and herself with only three words.

"Really? I never thought you'd say yes. Alright, the Eiffel tower it is. Tomorrow evening? I could be there at nine thirty, if you agree." She is excited, Santana sees that by her wide grin.

"Sure thing. I'll see you then, Rachel."

Rachel can't stop talking about it the whole way to the hotel and her dads just ignore her. They go to the pool, though, without her when they all get back, for a deserved break from her overload of words.

* * *

><p>Santana's the one who waits for Rachel by the Eiffel tower at nine thirty sharp. She is wearing one of her nice dresses and her hair is let down, straightened.<p>

"I am so sorry that I kept you waiting. Public transport is really awful." Rachel apologizes as soon as she's close enough to Santana, who only nods in agreement. "Shall we go up right now?"

"It's okay, I haven't been waiting for long." Santana lies, because it's been ten minutes and she was getting anxious with anticipation. "Yeah, sure. I bought our tickets so we'd get in faster." She leads them to the line.

"You didn't have to do that, Santana. How much do I owe you?" Rachel asks, to with Santana's only response is "this is a date, isn't it? You don't owe me anything." Rachel just nods, smiling widely.

They get to the top fast enough and it's dark outside. If she wasn't so against that, Santana would say it was romantic to go on a date there at that time. She sustains from commenting, though.

"I never thought I'd be going on a date with Santana Lopez. Especially not in Paris." Rachel admits as they both lean on the railing and stare up to the sky.

"I'm not that hard to get when I'm single, you know. It helps when you wear normal clothes. Which reminds me, you look great." Santana says all at once, probably too quickly, but Rachel catches on just fine.

"Thank you, Santana. Just the mere thought of you liking me is still a little unbelievable, though." The diva says and doesn't get a response, because it would probably only come out of Santana's mouth as something incredibly dorky. She didn't want that.

"I've liked you for some time, now," is the only thing she says instead of what her mind's been telling her.

They talk casually for a while at that same spot and Rachel gets bolder and bolder with minutes. She watches Santana's lips as they move when she speaks and then promptly cuts her off. "I'm going to kiss you now."

Santana barely has any time to nod in agreement before Rachel's lips are on hers. She responds immediately and it's like no one she's ever kissed before. It's nice, at first, but then it grows to amazing in a matter of seconds.

At the end of the date, Santana can safely say that it's the best one she's ever been on. They say goodbye until Lima and this time it's really true. It gives them both time to think about it and where the relationship could lead to. It helps greatly that Santana's also going to New York.


End file.
